You are a smart person I think if you are worrying about this. I suggest finding a different job completely that does not involve technology. From observing many colleagues including ones that have had breakdowns, I think there is no healthy workspace in tech, only people that seem healthy because there are a few exceptional resistant ones.
But why should it be like something to convert short term memory to long term memory? Computational systems can convert data between different forms of memory but we don't typically believe consciousness emerges from this operation.
Not to say this addresses the concern but in that case a computation system is being driven by a pure line signal (the power) and is ultimately both dependant on that for operation, and requires a high level of stability of that line to be "effective".
The alternative in this case is imagining that you have a biological process that has adaptive energy response controlling the movement from short term, to long term and itself optimizing based on the performance trade-off of input stimulus overload.
In that case, the process of deciding what to, and when to move data from short term to long term memory (in a feedback loop) could start to approach more of the appearance of consciousness (choosing what to process, what to remember, adjusting the input rate and types of input based on the limitations of processing and retention).
Many animals have consciousness as well so I think it's important to be more open to reducing the bare essentials of what a process of "awareness" is or could be rather than looking at it from a hyper evolved language/information influenced state of humans.
Note I agree that it is not consciousness, but i think it's an interesting exploration to look at the modeling of it from computer forms since we are made of non-conscious atoms and still made it here
Basically in this argument there is no such thing as what we call experiences or consciousness. It's an imagined concept, one that we think we have but we are merely misunderstanding.
Basically in this model, there is no present. The brain just invented the concept "I feel this" as a model of it's own inner workings, just like we invented the concept "object" to define certain aspects of physical reality that aren't 100% there.
So, basically you are imagining your experience, when in reality you are just an automaton. Same as how you imagine a robot is happy or sad when in reality it has no feelings.
This is precisely my hypothesis. We imagine that our human consciousness differs from animals when in fact it it exactly the same, but with a more-expressive language system on top.
Not agreeing or disagreeing with your larger point but garbage picking is an interesting example. Aren't there folks who volunteer to pick up trash/litter on the side of the road and in parks? There's definitely an incentive (maintaining your community and other emotional/less-tangible benefits of volunteering) but it's not quite being payed to do it.
I've seen groups "sponsor" roads where they pick up the trash for a sign of appreciation/advertisement from the state. But pickup up a few discarded cups in nature is a lot different than picking up residential or commercial garbage, especially on the scale of a city.
I suppose you have a point that warehouses don't exactly attract top talent. Ontario labour law is abundantly clear that employers must not terminate employees over matters related to protecting health and wellbeing. It even requires employers to ensure that the workers are well aware of that fact. This is going to cost Bezos a fortune when the government finds out what happened. But when the head shows up rotten, what can you do? I expect a sharp mind like yours would never even entertain the thought of working there, right?
I do wonder how far off-topic you are prepared to go here?
I’m around if you ever reach a point where your ego allows you to get past the earlier error. It is okay that your comment wasn’t thought through. Nobody cares. For the sake of kindness, I will continue to partake in this diversion therapy if that’s what you need to get through it, but know that I’m more interested in the original topic.
